


Escobar, the First Year

by Minutia_R



Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, Gen, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-22
Updated: 2013-02-22
Packaged: 2017-12-03 05:24:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/694633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Minutia_R/pseuds/Minutia_R
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A cycle of poems about the Durona Group's first year on Escobar.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Escobar, the First Year

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cordialcount](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordialcount/gifts).



> Thanks to avanti_90 for helping me make this clearer and sharper.
> 
> Chrys' physical therapy shanty can be sung to the tune of "Congo River," if you're so inclined.

I. Summer

My sisters say that they are coming home  
Somewhere they’ve never been. But I’ve been here.  
I’ve seen the glass-topped towers, how their light  
Touched every flyer at the shuttleport.

_It’s hot_ , the kids complain, and I recall--  
Norwood once bought me a mango ice  
a flavor that I haven’t tasted since.  
My sisters are here now. It’s like a dream.

Where you’re going to a party, but don’t know  
What the party’s for, and then you meet  
Your math tutor from back when you were ten,  
And you’re not wearing clothes. That kind of dream.

Surreal. A machine spits out a card  
Fresh plastic smell, the numbers clear and sharp.  
 _Refugee_ , it says, and _Citizen_.  
Three billion Escobarans, and one me.

II. Fall

Have you ever been to Escobar?  
 _Refrain: Stretch, lass, stretch_  
The dole checks there they don’t stretch far  
 _Refrain: Stretch, my lass, and hold_

The unemployment office is tiring  
It’s wait all day and there’s no one hiring

And you can’t set up in private practice  
If you don’t know what the Riviera Act is

And it’s not planetary discriminaton  
It’s “Where did you get your certification?”

Oh, our caseworkers are a jolly bunch  
It’s “Sorry, Doctor, no free lunch”

The supervisor’s a sweetheart too  
“There must be something you lot can do”

The Group’s got kids, the Group’s got students  
So a punch in the teeth just wouldn’t be prudent

No time for tears, no time for sorrow  
We’ll see what life will bring tomorrow

I thought I heard Old Lilly say  
One more stretch and then belay

Bring your head down to your knees  
It’s a jolly life as a refugee

III. Winter

No snow falls. Just rain  
Lashes broad-leafed trees here. Who won,  
Baron Fell, old friend?

IV. Spring

Today  
A message came  
Maree says: “Are you well?  
Komarr’s nice, but I miss you.  
Goodbye.”

Goodbye  
To certainty  
A grey-eyed man once said:  
“Everyone I knew is dead.”  
What’s left?

What’s left:  
I’m still alive  
It’s much too nice outside  
To be a flower on a grave  
today.

**Author's Note:**

> Here are the sources for the images I used:
> 
> [Rowan](http://www.studiobotanika.com/product-info.php?Curtis_Botanical-pid4700.html)  
> [Chrysanthemum](http://www.byneelam.com/page5.htm) (NB: this link, and the web page it belongs to, are dead.)  
> [Lilies](http://www.etsy.com/listing/41086467/botanical-print-turks-cap-lily)
> 
> The question of whom the images actually belong to is left as an exercise for the interested student.


End file.
